Toby Harnden was the Daily Telegraph's US Editor, based in Washington DC, from 2006 to 2011. Click here for Toby's website. Follow him on Twitter here @tobyharnden and on Facebook here. He is the author of the bestselling book Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story Britain's War in Afghanistan.

Why can't Barack Obama speak about US tolerance?

The United States is currently being portrayed around the world as full of bigots who hate Muslims. That plays into the hands of America's enemies and it's a caricature that has very little basis in reality. Unfortunately, President Barack Obama is one of those who is feeding the stereotype. This is the subject of my Sunday Telegraph column this week:

It took a Manhattan taxi driver called Ahmed Sharif to speak out for America, which is being vilified as bigoted and Islamophobic because of the controversy generated by opposition to the so-called "Ground Zero mosque".

The United States was his dream country, he enthused, and he loved New York City. "I feel like I belong here. This is the city actually [for] all colours, races, religion, everyone. We live here side by side peacefully."